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Tuesday, September 6, 2016

Pink Floyd's David Gilmour Under Fire For Plans To Restore Old Bath House Into Home

Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour is planning to demolish a 122-year-old bath house to make way for a luxury home.

The 70-year-old rocker and his wife, author Polly Samson, 54, are seeking to build a new home for their eight children on the site of Medina House in Hove, East Sussex, yards from their current home.

They want to keep the form of the original building and incorporate heritage features from it.

But the proposals have sparked a protest poster proclaiming "we don't need no demolition, we don't need no thoughtless plans" has been taped to the building, in reference to the Pink Floyd track "Another Brick in the Wall."

The note, which asks Mr Gilmour to "leave our 'hood alone," is signed off by the words "Save Hove From Property Tycoons."

Samson moved to the city in 2009 and is said to have been keen to restore the building to its former glory before architectural reviews revealed that it is not salvageable.

The bath house was closed in the 1940s and the building was deployed as a makeshift hospital during the Second World War.

Squatters from an art group called Chalk Circle occupied the building in 1999 and were allowed to stay there until 2006, when they were evicted due to complaints from residents about noise and rubbish.

The building was damaged by fire in 2013 and 2014, with the latter blaze initially assessed as arson by the fire service.

Samson bought the property in October last year for a seven figure fee from developer Sirus Taghan, who had owned it for 16 years.

He had been unsuccessful with 20 different planning applications related to the site, including for a block of 11 flats.

Keb Garavito-Bruhn, partner at London-based Pilbrow & Partners, said that Samson had "fallen in love" with the property.

He said: "Her ambition was to keep it and convert it into a family home and we have been working on plans with them for over a year.

"Our plans are to rebuild Medina House, keeping the form of the original and incorporating heritage features, like glazed tiles from the old bath house.

"A private home for Polly and her family, our design adapts the form and fabric of the original to its new use with contemporary sustainable construction.

"We have been talking to neighbors and the council about these ideas and now look forward to presenting them to the community."

A planning application for the new development could be submitted imminently and work on the new home could begin in spring next year.